Written Answers Friday 14 May 2010

Scottish Executive

Environment

Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the carbon benefits are of restoring Scotland’s blanket bogs.

Roseanna Cunningham: Blanket bogs represent a considerable reservoir of carbon, the balance of which is disturbed when they are drained. Benefits of restoration may therefore include a reduction in losses over time of carbon to watercourses and atmosphere. The magnitude of the benefits will vary from site to site, depending on such factors as altitude, species composition and management.

Environment

Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total area of blanket bog is in Scotland.

Roseanna Cunningham: Blanket bog occurs close to other habitats such as wet and dry heath, with a range of transitional forms and as such has a number of possible definitions. Recent estimates of extent, each using slightly different methods and criteria, are between 1.1 million and 1.9 million hectares.

Environment

Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the proportion of the United Kingdom’s blanket bog that is in Scotland.

Roseanna Cunningham: Advice provided by Scottish Natural Heritage has estimated that 80-85% of the UK’s blanket bog is in Scotland.

Environment

Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the proportion of the United Kingdom’s blanket bog that is in Scotland’s national forest estate.

Roseanna Cunningham: The Forestry Commission estimate that approximately 4% of the UK’s blanket bog is in Scotland’s national forest estate.

Environment

Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has mapped the areas of blanket bog and whether it will publish any such maps.

Roseanna Cunningham: A distribution map of blanket peat (which may or may not support bog vegetation) is published in the ECOSSE Report published by the Scottish Executive in 2007:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/03/16170508/0.

  Blanket bog was mapped by Scottish Natural Heritage in a series of regional reports under its Scottish Blanket Bog Inventory, but no country-wide map was produced. A map showing the general occurrence of blanket bog across Scotland is available on the SNH website (www.snh.org.uk).

Forestry

Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total area of blanket bog is in the national forest estate.

Sarah Boyack (Edinburgh Central) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what total area of blanket bog is planted with trees in the national forest estate.

Roseanna Cunningham: Once blanket bog has been planted with trees it can no longer be defined as blanket bog. However, using British Geological Survey data, Forestry Commission Scotland has estimated that the total area of peatland capable of supporting blanket bog vegetation on the national forest estate is 71,000 hectares, of which 44,500 is planted with trees.

Justice

Bill Aitken (Glasgow) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the extent is of the involvement of Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal staff in assisting other prosecution authorities outwith Scotland and particularly the extent of this involvement in Afghanistan.

Elish Angiolini: David Glancy, Procurator Fiscal has been seconded to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and has been based in Afghanistan as part of a UK team since October 2008 to provide assistance and training to the prosecution authorities.

  Two members of legal staff of the Crown Office International Co-operation Unit are members of the European Judicial Network a network of prosecutors who provide guidance and assistance on national law to each other.

  A member of legal staff from the Crown Office International Co-operation Unit is currently based within Eurojust in the Hague. Eurojust is the EU’s judicial co-operation unit staffed by lawyers and judges from all Member States of the EU.

  The Crown Office is designated as the central authority in Scotland for the receipt and issue of request for international mutual legal assistance to and from designated authorities in other countries. The Lord Advocate may nominate a Court in Scotland to recover evidence from witnesses and may direct a prosecutor to make application to a Court to crave the issue of a search warrant.

  The Crown Agent is designated as a central authority for the receipt and execution of European Arrest Warrants issued by judicial authorities within the European Union. The Crown Agent may only issue an European Arrest Warrant to the police for execution if satisfied the warrant meets the statutory criteria in the Extradition Act 2003. The decision whether the person should be surrendered to the requesting state is a matter for the Sheriff at Edinburgh. The Crown Agent may also issue European Arrest Warrants to other designated central authorities in the EU Member States to seek surrender of fugitives from justice in Scotland.

  There are no bilateral treaties between the United Kingdom and Afghanistan providing for mutual legal assistance or extradition. A request for extradition received from Afghanistan would be received by the Scottish Ministers who, if satisfied the request meets the statutory criteria would certify the request. Crown Office would then crave a warrant to arrest from the sheriff at Edinburgh. No such request has been received or issued.

Ministerial Engagements

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what official engagements were undertaken by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing on 27 April 2010.

Nicola Sturgeon: On 27 April 2010, I recorded messages for the Diana Awards ceremony and a message for the International Self Care conference. I also met with ministerial colleagues to discuss forthcoming parliamentary business, attended to ministerial papers and I attended the weekly meeting of the Scottish Cabinet in Bute House.